Corporate report

Cabinet Office single departmental plan: 2015 to 2020

Updated 16 December 2016

This corporate report was withdrawn on 14 December 2017

This has been replaced by another version.

£365m Total Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) in 2015 to 2016

This includes £347 million resource DEL and £18 million capital DEL.

Source: Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015

Vision

Government is the servant of the British people, not their master. We are determined to measure success not by how much money is spent, but by how much it improves people’s lives.

The Cabinet Office and Number 10, alongside HM Treasury, form the government’s corporate centre, co-ordinating policy and promoting efficiency and reform. Our purpose is to make government greater than the sum of its parts by providing challenge, support and expertise. In doing this we must focus only on what is most efficiently and effectively done at the centre. This includes supporting the Prime Minister, co-ordinating intelligence and security, leading digital transformation, providing expert support to departments and agencies and improving Civil Service capability and effectiveness. The Cabinet Office will also continue to improve the effective running of the department to facilitate the implementation of cross-government priorities.

Our ministers and management

1. Support the Prime Minister and Cabinet to deliver the government’s programme

Lead ministers: The Prime Minister and The Rt Hon Ben Gummer MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General

Lead officials: Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service and John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office

1.1 What the Cabinet Office is doing

We have made clear commitments to the British public. We have already made progress on delivering these, but there is still much more to do. We will continue to deliver on our commitments to provide security for all and extend opportunity to everyone – at every stage in their life.

To make sure that government operates effectively, we must support the Prime Minister and Cabinet to make collective decisions and to set and communicate the government’s priorities. We must continue to draft high-quality legislation, working closely with departments to translate policy into clear, effective and readable law and to provide high quality support for the government in Parliament. We will monitor the progress we make in delivering the government’s agenda, so that departments can be held to account for making things happen. We must appoint the best people to public office, ensuring we maintain the highest standards of propriety and conduct within government and public life.

To support the Prime Minister and Cabinet to deliver the government’s programme, the Cabinet Office will:

1. establish, implement and communicate the government’s strategic priorities
2. support the effective operation of the Cabinet and Cabinet Committees
3. draw up and facilitate the delivery of the government’s legislative programme
4. ensure public appointments are filled by the best people and that they act in the right way

We will:

• increase the number of public appointments going to women
• continue to tackle all the bureaucracy of Whitehall that clogs the arteries of government

1.2 How the Cabinet Office is doing

Communicating government policies

Single Departmental Plans have been introduced for 17 government departments as a new way to manage government business. The published plans describe the government’s objectives over this Parliament and the steps departments will take to deliver them. Key measures and performance updates allow the public to track progress over time.

The plans have been agreed with the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury to make sure they reflect the priorities of the whole government and that they are deliverable within the budgets agreed at the Spending Review.

Diversity of Public Appointments

44% public appointments filled by women from April 2014 to March 2015

This is a 5 percentage point increase on the previous financial year.

Work to increase the diversity of public appointments is ongoing. The Centre for Public Appointments provides support and advice to departments across Whitehall on how to ensure that recruitment practices are inclusive and modern.

2. Drive efficiencies and reforms that will make government work better

Lead ministers: The Rt Hon Ben Gummer MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General

Lead official: John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office

2.1 What the Cabinet Office is doing

Government works better when it works together, maximising the resources at its disposal to provide high-quality services to the public. We must scrutinise every pound we spend and run government as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Making government work better means transforming public services to better meet the needs of citizens. The corporate functions hosted by the Cabinet Office are responsible for providing expert support to reform programmes across government, ensuring citizens have access to public services that are both efficient and effective.

Over the last 5 years, the Cabinet Office helped reduce the cost of government while supporting transformation of services. In the financial year 2014 to 2015, we helped departments save £18.6 billion against a 2009 to 2010 baseline. We did this by selling empty buildings, improving the management of big projects, making the Civil Service smaller, reforming Civil Service pensions, improving contracting and moving more services online.

Over the next 5 years we will go further and continue to improve performance and capability across departments and agencies to support further public service transformation. We will:

• roll out cross-government technology platforms to cut costs, enabling more flexible working and improve productivity
• move more services online
• continue to improve the management of the government estate, establishing a new central body to take ownership of all relevant government land and property, including offices, and to identify and sell property that government does not need for more productive use
• co-locate government services wherever possible, creating value for money for taxpayers and better workplaces for staff
• improve government’s ability to deliver major projects through high-quality assurance, clear project standards, insight and expert advice from the newly formed Infrastructure and Projects Authority
• continue to provide expert commercial advice across government to achieve greater value for money from procurement and contract management, improve supplier relationships, and reduce government’s spend on common goods and services
• continue to support government to produce routinely high-quality public service campaigns that communicate ministerial priorities and enable people and businesses to make the best choices for themselves
• continue to work closely with HM Treasury and across government to reduce financial losses through fraud and error and improve overdue debt management

The Civil Service is engaged in a mission to improve the lives of the entire country. But to govern modern Britain, the Civil Service must be more like modern Britain. To make government work better we must continue to reform the Civil Service to make it more dynamic and streamlined. This means building a truly unified Civil Service that is committed to developing our most significant asset, our people. Our Civil Service Workforce Strategy will articulate how we will build the workforce shape, size and capabilities we need, now and in the future across the Civil Service. It will set out clearly the routes to building individual and collective talent and the diverse set of experiences we expect our future workforce to have, balancing depth and breadth of experience and connecting all this across departments.

We will lead on diversity and inclusion for the Civil Service and champion social mobility, better reflecting the public we serve, particularly at our most senior levels. We are committed to mentoring pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to raise aspirations, increase confidence, inform and encourage. Our current schools outreach programme supports 20 schools and we plan to expand mentoring to at least 200 schools. We will make recruitment to the Civil Service more open, ensure our people benefit from world-class training and development, and create a culture that rewards talent.

Transparency is at the heart of this government’s agenda. As a founding member of the Open Government Partnership and through our leading role in the G8 Open Data Charter, the government has been heralded as a world leader driving the transparency and open data agenda globally. This government will continue to be the most transparent government in the world, including through the effective operation of Freedom of Information legislation. To deliver this, the Cabinet Office will also continue to implement the government’s move towards releasing official records after 20 years rather than 30.

To make government work better, the Cabinet Office will:

1. ensure the Civil Service gets the best people and gets the best from its people
2. strengthen digital, technology and the management and use of data across government
3. ensure government continues to work in an open and transparent way
4. improve strategic management of the government estate
5. support departments to improve project delivery, establishing the United Kingdom’s long-term infrastructure priorities including those contributing to building a Northern Powerhouse, and securing private sector investment
6. deliver cross-government commercial advice and services
7. oversee communications for the government
8. drive efficiencies across government and support public sector reform

We will:

• make a further £10 billion annual savings by 2017 to 2018 and £15-20 billion in 2019 to 2020
• push ahead with reform of the Civil Service to make it more dynamic and streamlined
• make recruitment to the Civil Service more open and actively look for exceptional talent, especially in areas where capabilities are in short supply
• legislate to ensure that every public sector worker operating in customer-facing role must speak fluent English
• end taxpayer-funded 6-figure payoffs for the best-paid public sector workers
• tighten the rules around taxpayer-funded paid ‘facility time’ for union representatives
• continue to sell unneeded government property and co-locate services wherever possible
• raise the target for SMEs’ share of central procurement to one third
• strengthen the Prompt Payment Code (PPC) and ensure all government suppliers sign up
• cut a further £10 billion of red tape over the next Parliament through the Red Tape Challenge and the One-In-Three-Out Rule
• continue to be the most transparent government in the world
• move more services online
• ensure digital assistance is always available for those who are not online, while rolling out cross-government technology platforms to cut costs and improve productivity
• examine ways to build on innovative ways to deliver high-quality public services such as the Work Programme

How the Cabinet Office is doing

Civil Service apprenticeships

2.3% Civil Service target for percentage of our workforce in England as apprenticeship starts by the end of this Parliament

Civil Service Diversity

Recent announcements: name blind recruitment

13 departments and agencies have already moved to name blind recruitment by default following the Prime Minister’s announcement on 26 October 2015.

We are committed to rolling out name-blind recruitment as a default across all 17 main departments by September 2016.

Current diversity statistics

	Civil Service (March 2015)	The Senior Civil Service (April 2015)	Cabinet Office (March 2015)	Cabinet Office Senior Civil Service (April 2015)
Women	54.2%	40.3%	49.3%	39.6%
Black and minority ethnic (BAME)	11.2%	4.4%	13.7%	4.5%
Employees with a disability	9.2%	3.4%	9.8%	3.4%

We are committed to increased diversity and inclusion in the Cabinet Office and wider Civil Service, particularly at our most senior levels. We are also exploring how best to collect and track data to measure socio-economic background, which will build on existing measurement of the Fast Stream and Fast Track apprentices. We will publish more detail on this in our Civil Service Wide Social Mobility Strategy, which will form part of the ‘1 year on’ update to the Talent Action Plan in Spring 2016.

The representation level for ethnicity and disability should be treated with caution since declaration rates in the Cabinet Office are low.

Further information: Civil Service Headline Workforce Information

Departments using common digital platforms

‘Government as a Platform’ is an umbrella term for a set of common software components and best practice that government digital teams can use and reuse rather than building from scratch. Developers can assemble components best suited to the service they are designing. This will free up digital teams to focus on building and iterating user-centred services, which will be cheaper to run.

Several shared platforms are being built including a payments platform and notifications platform. As these services go live updates will be provided here.

GOV.UK Verify went live in May 2016. People can use GOV.UK Verify to access 10 services including self-assessment tax returns and to view driving license information. GOV.UK Notify is in private beta and processes messages for passport applications, Digital Deputies (Office of the Public Guardian) and suppliers to the Digital Marketplace. GOV.UK Pay will take payments in Q3 2016/17. Adopting services will be added throughout 2016/17.

Sale of property

£5 billion government target for receipts through release of surplus land and property assets by 2020

SMEs and prompt payment codes

27.1% of central government buying was with SMEs in 2014 to 2015

We are committed to raising the target for SMEs’ share of central government procurement to one third by 2020.

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is collating SME spend data for central government for 2015 to 2016 prior to departmental review. Updated figures will be published in the Autumn 2016.

Of the 30 strategic suppliers the CCS is engaging on Prompt Payment Code sign up (not including three who are unlikely to be strategic suppliers in the future), 23 are now signed up to the Code with a further two committing to sign up. This leaves five strategic suppliers not yet signed and the CCS will continue to engage these suppliers with BEIS and Crown Representative support.

Further information: Government spend with small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

18 out of 33 government strategic suppliers have signed up to Prompt Payment Code

We are committed to strengthening the Prompt Payment Code and ensuring all major government suppliers sign up to it.

Ambitions for Project Delivery

75% of projects exiting the Government Major Projects Portfolio (other than those due for early closure) to be rated green or amber/green by January 2018

We are committed to improving the delivery of major projects across government.

3. Build a stronger civil society

Lead Minister: Rob Wilson MP, Minister for Civil Society

Lead Official: Mark Fisher, Director, Office for Civil Society

A Ministerial Statement issued by the Prime Minister confirmed that the functions of the Office for Civil Society (OCS) had been transferred from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Further information is available here. The following content is provided for reference ahead of update to DCMS website.

3.1 What the Cabinet Office is doing

The government’s vision is to have a more engaged nation, one in which we take greater responsibility for ourselves and for our neighbours. The Big Society is about reducing demands on the state by involving people, neighbourhoods, villages, towns and cities in the task of improving the country.

To achieve this the Cabinet Office will support the growth of social action and volunteering, so that everyone is given opportunities to help the vulnerable in their communities. We will guarantee a place on the National Citizen Service (NCS) to every young person who wants one, aiming to grow the programme to 360,000 places per year by 2020 to 2021, so they can learn new skills and meet others from different walks of life. We will support the Prince of Wales’s Step up to Serve initiative, which encourages youth community involvement. We will support philanthropy and boost social investment by scaling up social impact bonds and payment-by-results. We will continue to encourage innovation in the delivery of public services, including by public service mutual.

To build a stronger civil society, the Cabinet Office will:

1. support young people to be involved in their communities and promote social action
2. support social investment, innovation, and an independent and capable voluntary sector

We will:

• guarantee every child a place on National Citizen Service, so they can learn new skills and meet young people from different walks of life
• look to scale up social impact bonds and payment-by-results, focussing on youth unemployment, mental health and homelessness
• support the Prince of Wales’s ‘Step up to Serve’ initiative, encouraging young people to serve in their community
• help everyone volunteer and support action to help the vulnerable
• support an increase in public service mutuals – organisations that are owned by their staff and deliver public services – by guaranteeing a ‘right to mutualise’ within the public sector
• examine ways to build on innovative ways to deliver high quality public services such as the Work Programme

3.2 How the Cabinet Office is doing

Number of social impact bonds

32 SIBs currently in operation in the UK

Social impact bonds (SIBs) are a new tool that unlock private finance and public investment. They enable organisations which are best placed to address social problems to do so on a payment by results basis.

Further information: SIBs currently in operation (Centre for Social Impact Bonds).

Number of National Citizen Service places

57,789 young people took part in NCS in 2014, building on the 37,000 participants in 2013

The National Citizen Service (NCS) is a programme open to all 16 and 17-year-olds in England and Northern Ireland. It allows young people to take part in social action projects and build skills for work and life. The government plans to deliver up to 360,000 places on NCS by 2020 to 2021.

Further information: National Citizen Service.

Voluntary sector

The Local Sustainability Fund will help small to medium sized charities, working with vulnerable and disadvantaged people, to plan for the future and secure and enhance their vital services. By March 2017 we will support over 260 charities through the Fund. We will encourage businesses and charities to share professional skills with civil society organisations through volunteering. By the end of 2016 we will have supported networking to encourage skills exchange in every region in England. We will support procurers to improve the way they commission services, including through sharing best practice on implementing the Public Services (Social Value Act) 2012.

Social Action

We will take new steps to encourage and enable social action, including supporting ideas and models that are making a difference so they can grow and become part of the daily life of every person; part of the normal routine in our public services and communities.

In the last Parliament, 215 social action projects were supported by the Centre for Social Action, which accelerates the development and spread of high impact social action projects. By the end of this Parliament we will invest £15 million in a further phase of the Centre and secure an equivalent match from other partners. We have already recruited over 6,500 Community Organisers, who act as local leaders bringing people together to take action on the things they care about. By the end of this Parliament we will have extended this number to 10,000.

Further information: Trends and developments in social action and empowering communities (the Community Life Survey)

4. Create a more united democracy

Lead Ministers: Chris Skidmore MP, Parliamentary Secretary, Minister for the Constitution

4.1 What the Cabinet Office is doing

This government is a modern, compassionate, one nation government.

The government is determined to strengthen and sustain the Union. At the heart of this are strong democratic institutions, constitutional settlements that are fair to every part of the United Kingdom and a Parliament that operates effectively.

The government is devolving more powers within our family of nations to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and giving the English more say over their destiny. In the next 5 years we will support the Scotland Office and Wales Office to implement the Smith Commission Agreement and the St. David’s Day Agreement. We will introduce fairness for England by delivering English votes for English laws. We will respect the will of the British people and keep the First Past the Post system for elections to the House of Commons, while strengthening the electoral process by making it accessible to citizens wherever they live and addressing fraud. We will improve the way that Parliament works by reducing the number of MPs, reforming parliamentary boundaries and continuing to seek agreement on a comprehensive package of party funding reform. And we will ensure that the House of Lords works well in its main function as a revising and scrutinising chamber.

To build a more united democracy, the Cabinet Office will:

1. deliver a stable constitutional settlement that represents a fair deal for every part of the United Kingdom
2. make Parliament more effective and reform the electoral process

We will:

• introduce English votes for English laws, answering the longstanding West Lothian Question in our democracy. End the ability for Scottish MPs to be able to have the potentially decisive say on similar matters that only affect England and Wales
• change parliamentary procedures so that the detail of legislation affecting only England or England and Wales will be considered by a committee drawn in proportion to party strength in England or England and Wales
• add a new stage to how English legislation is passed; no bill or part of a bill relating only to England would be able to pass its third reading and become law without being approved through a legislative consent motion by a grand committee made up of all English MPs, or all English and Welsh MPs
• reduce the number of MPs to 600 to cut the cost of politics and make votes of more equal value
• respect the will of the British people, as expressed in the 2011 referendum, and keep First Past the Post for elections in the House of Commons
• ensure the House of Lords continues to work well by addressing issues such as the size of the chamber and the retirement of peers
• address the unfairness of the current Parliamentary boundaries
• implement the boundary reforms that Parliament has already approved and make them apply automatically once the Boundary Commission reports in 2018
• continue to seek agreement on a comprehensive package of party funding reform
• ensure the Electoral Commission puts greater priority on tackling fraud and considers insisting on proof of ID to vote
• complete the electoral register, by working to include more of the 5 million Britons who live abroad
• introduce votes for life, scrapping the rule that bars British citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years from voting

4.2 How the Cabinet Office is doing

Constitutional settlement

English Votes for English Laws has been introduced. The Scotland Act 2016 received Royal Assent in March and the Wales Bill is progressing through Parliament.

Parliamentary representation and effectiveness

English Votes for English Laws has been introduced and to date, eight bills have had clauses or schedules certified. The Government has committed to review EVEL after one year of operation.

Registration of voters

The Electoral Commission reported that the last registers produced under the household registration system for Great Britain in February to March 2014, were 84.7% complete and 86.5% accurate for local government electors, and 85.9% complete and 86.4% accurate for parliamentary electors.

Individual Electoral Registration

The transition to Individual Electoral Registration (IER) was completed in December 2015, representing a major milestone in the transformation of the registration system. In summer 2014, through an extensive data matching exercise, 87% of existing electors (40.5 million individuals) were transferred to the IER registers without having to take any action. By May 2015, 96% of entries had been verified. Further efforts were then made to verify previous register entries by the December 2015 deadline. By the end of the transition, local authorities had attempted to contact any unverified entries on the registers at least 9 times, including by making at least 2 in-person visits to the registered address, to explain the changes and ask individuals to register under the new system.

In June 2014 the government launched a new digital online registration service, making registering to vote simpler, clearer and faster. The online registration service continues to support simpler, clearer and faster registration. In total, the service has handled more than 20 million applications. User satisfaction in the service is high at over 90%.

The website experienced a serious outage ahead of the registration deadline for the EU Referendum. Prompt action was taken to extend the deadline and to recover the service to ensure that no one was prevented from registering. The electoral register used for the Referendum was the largest ever, at 46.5 million entries.

An Electoral Commission report on the state of December 2015 registers showed that, thanks to Individual Electoral Registration, registers were more accurate and no less complete than before.

5. Strengthen and secure the United Kingdom at home and abroad

Lead ministers: The Prime Minister and The Rt Hon Ben Gummer MP Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General

Lead officials: Mark Lyall Grant, Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser and Charles Farr, Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee

On the 18th July 2016 a Written Ministerial Statement issued by the Prime Minister confirmed that the Cabinet Office’s Europe Unit had been transferred to the new Department for Exiting the European Union. Further information is available here. The following content in relation to Europe is provided for reference.

5.1 What the Cabinet Office is doing

Government’s first duty is to keep our country safe, so we will do whatever it takes to keep Britain secure.

The Cabinet Office coordinates these efforts, working with departments and agencies to evaluate and respond to threats at home and abroad. This includes: supporting the effective operation of the National Security Council; preparing for and managing the coordination of the government’s response to domestic crises, including operation of the national crises response mechanism, COBR; and delivering a transformative cyber security programme. This work is guided by our ambitious and forward-looking National Security Strategy.

We are working hard to deliver a fresh settlement for Britain in a reformed European Union, so we get a better deal for our country and secure our future. We will then deliver on the government’s promise to hold and in/out referendum and put the question of membership to the British people.

To strengthen and secure the United Kingdom at home and abroad, the Cabinet Office will:

1. coordinate, deliver and implement the National Security Strategy and the Strategic Defence and Security Review and respond to national security threats at home and abroad
2. coordinate and develop international policy across government
3. deliver a new settlement for the United Kingdom in a reformed European Union, ahead of a referendum

We will:

• hold a National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review to plan for the future
• continue to invest in our cyber defence capabilities
• end our commitment to an ‘ever closer union’, as enshrined in the Treaty to which every EU country has to sign up
• legislate in the first session of the next Parliament for an in/out referendum to be held on Britain’s membership of the EU before the end of 2017

On Thursday 23 June 2016 the EU referendum took place and the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.

Following the vote the Department for Exiting the European Union was established. Further information is available here.

5.2 How the Cabinet Office is doing

A secure and prosperous United Kingdom

The government carried out the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review; the Prime Minister announced the results on 23 November 2015.

A National Security Council sub-committee will oversee the implementation of the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review. The sub-committee is supported by a cross-Whitehall senior officials group. Funding for a successor National Cyber Security Programme was announced in the Strategic Defence and Security Review to build on the successes of the 2010 National Cyber Security Strategy. The business case process for the new programme started in December 2015, determining departmental allocations and finalising activity that will begin from April 2016.

A new settlement for the United Kingdom in a reformed European Union

On Thursday 23 June 2016 the EU referendum took place and the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. Following the vote the Department for Exiting the European Union was established. Further information is available here.

Delivering efficiently in the Cabinet Office

What the Cabinet Office is doing

Government is the servant of the British people. It must be run as efficiently and effectively as possible. As a department we are committed to reducing our operating costs, while continuing to improve the quality of our services through:

• streamlining our workforce in line with our Spending Review settlement to focus teams onto key priorities
• managing our estates and office space more efficiently by re-procuring our facilities management contract and implementing an estates strategy to match our Spending Review settlement
• reducing the cost of digital through commitment to cross-government platforms and continuing to share IT provision with DCMS and the Crown Commercial Service
• sourcing more of our services from shared providers through the Next Generation Shared Services Strategy and moving onto a single platform for delivery of these services
• procuring the common goods and services we require in a more cost effective manner by using commercial advice and tools from the Crown Commercial Service
• reducing losses due to fraud and error and improving our grant-making through a more digital approach and improved sharing of best practice
• delivering greater value for money from the National Citizen Service by reducing the cost per participant each year

How the Cabinet Office is working collaboratively across government

We will work collaboratively with HM Treasury and other government departments to deliver transformational change in key areas, including:

• developing digital solutions that meet common standards set by the Government Digital Service and use cross-government platforms such as GOV.UK Verify, GOV.UK Pay or GOV.UK Notify as part of departmental digital services wherever this demonstrates the best value for money solution for government
• rationalising our estate in a joined-up way, looking to develop ‘government hubs’ with other government departments, releasing land for housing where possible and participating in the development of the new commercial property model
• delivering savings in our commercial relationships including through spend on common goods and services, delivered in partnership with Crown Commercial Services. Continuing to build our commercial capability and working with Crown Commercial Services to deliver the government’s 33% commitment of our spend with SMEs by 2020
• working in partnership with: departments to deliver arm’s length bodies transformation plans; the Infrastructure and Projects Authority on major projects programmes and prioritisation; and reducing losses through fraud and error alongside developing a debt management strategy